Rebel Hearts
by SeleneSkies
Summary: The kingdom of Fiore is ruled by the hated monarch King Jude. The citizens of the kingdom create guilds, few created to resist the kingdom. Lucy Cressida, unknowingly the daughter of King Jude, Lucy Heartfilia, is in one of these guilds, called the Shattered Moon. One day she stumbles upon Natsu of Fairy Tail, a strange pinkette with a large bounty on his head. Is he friend or foe?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

 _ **S**_ _eventeen years ago, Fiore was a prosperous kingdom. It gained its riches on the common flower found only in their kingdom. The Aura Blossom. It could be used to create a wide variety of exquisite colors, and it's roots could cure a mass variety of illnesses._

 _The king and queen of this nation were loved by almost all._

 _The queen was pregnant and later had two sons and a daughter. Fiore rejoiced in the new life. But the happiness was short lived._

 _A terrible sickness overtook Fiore. The victims had their minds slowly etched away, until they were driven to the point of insanity. The kingdom searched for a cure. They brought doctors from all over the kingdom, and even they couldn't see what may be causing it._

 _Friends murdered friends and families were devastated. Hearts suffered and voices cried out to the heavens, cursing them for taking their innocence._

 _The king and queen, seeing how fast the sickness was spreading, had no choice. No choice but to travel to the lands they owned in the neighboring kingdom. On the days before the night they were to set out, the king fell to the illness. He killed his queen and two sons, until only the daughter was left. Before the king could kill his daughter, Gildarts, head knight of the Royal Army, stopped the king. Gildarts took the baby girl and rode away to the small town of Magnolia._

 _Gildarts was labeled as traitor to the royal family, and a bounty was put on his head. He found out about his bounty and built a cottage in one of the meadows a good distance away from Magnolia._

 _There he raised the girl as his own, hiding the origin of birth her birth from the girl._

 _The kingdom of Fiore Gildarts had once known had changed. Everyone knew the king was mad. But anyone who tried to stop the king or even peacefully talk to the king were executed._

 _One of the gifted doctors in Fiore had found the cure. It was an uncommon herb found by streams that cascaded along the mountains. But even knowing this didn't change anything. The king couldn't be cured. He was too long gone._

 _The cause was discovered later on. The cause of this disease had been the very flower Fiore had been built upon. Most chose to rid the flower of their lands. Others protested against the removal, saying it would ruin their businesses and put them in bankruptcy._

 _After much chaos, the king had finally put in a word about this. "Keep the wretched thing," he had simply said. The king sent out letters to the major businesses in Fiore to keep running as though nothing had happened. To show what happened if they "went against the crown", he hung many of the doctors in Fiore, including the doctor who had saved many of the townspeople's lives with his discovery._

 _Though many deaths had been avoided, many still died. Many couldn't make the journey to the mountains. And since people kept taking the plant, it became almost uncommon to simply stumble upon. Groups of bandits profited from taxing people to cross their lands and back. And soon the kingdom went from an estimated three million to seven-hundred thousand._

 _The people and former supporters of the royal family created guilds, made to overthrow the king. Others heard of this idea and made their own guilds, for their own reasons._

 _Other guilds rose up, and a system of guilds were created._

 _Three years later, a guild had been formed to rebel against the kingdom. It went by the name of Shattered Moon._

 _Gildarts bought the girl to this guild and she became acquainted with many of the other guild members her age. A year later he suddenly disappeared from the guild, leaving nothing behind._

 _Apparently, Gildarts had left for a dangerous job. The girl waited for Gildarts to come back for two years, staying pent up in their small cottage._

 _One day, a guild member had found Gildart's sword, in which Gildarts had fought many battles with. Shattered Moon searched by horse for many nights, and three months later, they'd given up completely. Most of them believe Gildart's disappearance meant his luck had finally run out._

 _He'd finally been captured. They would execute him soon._

 _The girl was given the sword. The center of the hilt had an icy blue gem, with a fiery red center. The edge gleamed against the dim light, like a ember that wouldn't lose it's flame. It's was beautiful, but not exactly what you'd describe as 'elegant'. The sword weighed tons, and was nearly as tall as the nine-year-old._

 _Ever since the day she'd learn the news, she lived in isolation, training day in and day out. She came back to the guild and took many of the jobs there, rarely speaking to anyone else besides Lisanna, her best friend since Gildarts was captured._

 _As time passed by, Lucy Cressida had quickly become one of the most skilled sword wielders in Shattered Moon._

 _And now we go back to the present.._

* * *

The sky outside was a rosy pink, which meant it was almost time for Lucy to go. Lisana needed money for rent, so she asked if Lucy could pick a job and they could go together tomorrow.

Lucy took a look through the many jobs on the board.

 _Catch Thief.._

 _Babysit.._

 _Dead or Alive, Hermano.._

 _Criminal Hides Out In Forest: Five hundred thousand jewel to whoever kills this man._

Five hundred thousand? _Kill?_ Could this guy really be all that dangerous? Lucy looked at the fuzzy picture nailed to the corner of the flyer. The only distinguishable features she could figure out was something pink..

"How am I supposed to find this guy?", Lucy mused to herself. Whoever made this job was obviously stupid. No wonder why no one had taken the job yet...

Lucy decided to call it a day. She'd contact the client and decide what to do from there.

Lucy calls over Plue, a small white trembling beagle with a strangely orange nose. She smiled as he jumped into her arms. Lucy felt Plue nestle up against her chest, short fur tickling the soft skin. She jogs through town, greeting the familiar vendors she finds along the way. She runs along the systems of canals that run through Magnolia. As she makes it to the edge of town, Lucy walks the rest of the way home.

A half-moon glowed on smooth granite boulders, turning them silver. The silence was broken only by the ripple of water from the swift black river and the whisper of trees in the forest beyond.

A small wooden cottage sat in the middle of a meadow in this forest. Light splashing could be heard from the waterfall a walking distance away from her home. She opens the light birch door as she hears light footsteps approaching, as well as not so light thumps.

Lucy begins to draw her sword as she sees a boy of eighteen surrounded by a group of army men. The boy was slowly cornered towards her home. Her heart sinks. Shattered Moon was well known for going against the king's ideals. If they were to see her, they'd be more than happy as to capture her. Worse, kill her right here and now.

The boy's clearly not too bad with a sword. He keeps a good stance, not letting any opening show up in his defenses. But the boy forgets one spot. His back. Lucy notices an archer hidden in the large cover behind the boy. The archer draws back his arrow. Lucy doesn't need to see clearly to know the archer's aiming for the boy's back, where the heart rested inside.

The soldiers are distracted. Lucy could run away right now. She could get away before she were discovered. Lucy could live another day to avenge Gildarts.

But Lucy's hand was already moving towards her sword. Lucy couldn't leave this poor guy to die. Then she'd be worse than man she despised.

She sneaks behind the archer and slams the hilt into the back of the archer's head. His body crumples to the night cool grass. He'd have one hell of a headache when he woke up. Lucy pauses to lay Plue down onto the ground, pointing towards their home.

Picking up her sword, she rushes between the boy and a soldier. Lucy meets her sword with his. The clang of metal against metal rings in the air. The man stiffens as he studies Lucy's features, horrified as if he's seen an apparition. She doesn't make haste. Lucy smashes the hilt of the man's jaw and punches him between the nose. He yells out and raises a fist toward Lucy's face. The boy stops fighting the other soldiers off, moving in to help Lucy, but Lucy stops him with an arm. She drops to the ground, crouching, and sweeps her leg. The large man goes down with a loud thud. The soldiers falter, staring at this sight. Lucy flies up to her feet and places her sword directly between the man's eyebrows. No one moves.

The soldier, most likely the head of this unit, stares cross-eyed at the point of the blade. Lucy mocks moving the sword forward. He almost immediately passes out. Lucy glares at the others, challenging them to move forward.

The other men stand horrified. Then one by one they run away. Only two scrawny ones are left. One takes the limp body of their leader, clearly struggling against the weight. The other helps him, and they carry him together.

Lucy stays alert until all of their figures disappeared behind the cover of the trees. Now it was only her and the pinkette.

* * *

 ** _A/N_** Sup guys! The intro was slow, so I felt like making the beginning of the timeskip's pace a little faster. I hope you like this fanfic!

 _Lucy is now faced with a suspicious character. Is he an ally or foe?_

It took a long time to come up with the plot, almost entirely because of the clog in my creative flow. If you're a new visitor, THANK YOU. I hope we can go through this adventure together! Looking forward to the next chapter! ( . u . )

*Credit for the picture goes to Nanaruko (deviantart), THANKS A MILLION! :D*


	2. Chapter 2

' **Ello wandering fairies! Welcome, and thanks for reading my newest story! New visitors, happy to see 'ya here, but 'chu looking at the wrong chapter. It's supposed to be read front to back, not the other way around!~ (See what I did there?)**

 **I wrote this story to take me out of my comfort zone, and to unclog my creative flow! I hope to become a great writer someday! :D**

 **I do not own Fairy Tail, or its characters.**

 **If you have any advice, talk away! Criticism is the honing tool of writing, in my opinion, so don't be shy!**

 **So let's continue this path together! I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

A boy with the strange pink hair stares at Lucy, she meets his gaze back warily.

Before her stood a pinkette, probably around her age, maybe older. He wore a strange sleeveless black jacket, and flowing white bottoms that were tied off right below his knees. She faintly noticed a tattoo on his shoulder before focusing on his weird white scarf that looked like scales; it didn't seem to go with what he was wearing at all. Not to mention the dangerous, almost wild facial features he had. And his pink hair stuck out in all directions.

Wait, where had she seen that shade of pink before?..

She pushed the thought to the back of her mind, looking back up at the pinkette.

 _Natsu's POV~_

Natsu blinks at the staring blonde, confused as to why she was staring at him that way. She had soft features, smoothed out of all the anger and confusion they had held a moment ago. Natsu realized they now held something else. Anxiety and fear. Her chocolate brown eyes darted from his face to the sword he gripped lightly in his right hand. Natsu starts towards her, confused of what he should do in this current situation. He stops dead in his tracks as he saw how she tenses at his sudden movement, gripping her own sword impossibly tighter, her body drawn tight.

He crouches down, biting back a moan as pain rams into his side. Natsu gently sets down his sword, kicking it far to the side for extra measure. His eyes fly back to her's, Natsu's brows pulling together in slight frustration. If only the ol' man were here. Natsu had no doubt he'd know exactly what to do and say without scaring her.

Before he could decide what to do, a warning voice interrupted him.

"Don't move", the blonde orders. "and drop the bag."

Natsu blinks at the girl, not sure what passed over his face at that moment. Dammit. He had hoped she wouldn't take notice of the satchel..

He slowly set it down, fearful for the precious item that laid inside it.

"Okay, stand up. Turn around and let me take a good look at you. Don't try anything funny!", she demands yet again.

Natsu held back a scoff. _Yeesh. Talk 'bout overkill.._ But he readies himself for the pain to come. Natsu stands up quickly, determined to get this over with. But Natsu doesn't expect the barely audible crack as an unbelievable pain racks his body. He doubles over, sinking like the Titanic. He duly notes that he had fallen back onto the cool grass, hashly tearing the skin on his elbows in the process. He tastes blood in his mouth, indicated he had surely bitten roughly down on his tongue.

Darkness swims in his eyes, obscuring most his vision. A piercing yelp of confusion and shock accompanies him into the lulling black, and Natsu gladly falls into its arms.

 _Bright light filters through a window in the petite room._ _He woke up warm, dry, bandaged, and safe. He felt like death._

As soon as his mind comes back to consciousness, Natsu panicks for a second, not knowing where he was. He curiously registers bright orange wallpaper. A soft, warm bed that smelled like laundry softener.

Wait. A bed?

He sits up to look 'round but the gesture was met with an explosion of pain that burst in his head. A sound much like a wounded animal burst forth from his lips before he could stop it. After a few more attempts he throws his head back down, a pout on his face. He looks down. Natsu was wearing an over-sized black t-shirt with a fiery dragon as it's design, a choice of clothing that Natsu thought was slightly ironic, since dragons were Natsu's favorite creatures.

The boy senses what was probably a couple broken ribs and a huge cut on his midsection, and possibly a gash on his forehead. _Fancy that. What the have I gotten myself into now?.._

He elevates his head, ignoring the pulsing throb to look curiously at his surroundings. It was a small room. The walls were a bright orange, the wooden ceiling a light brown. There was a small window to his right with white curtains drawn over it. He couldn't see the scenery outside, but he could see the yellow sunlight shining through the fabric. A warm scent passed by his nose, one Natsu immediately recognizes as supper. On cue, his stomach growls. He is overcome with hunger.

The unlucky string of events of the previous night flow back to Natsu. His heart lurches as he remembers falling at the feet of a certain weird blonde. She must have brought Natsu here. Natsu was certainly going to thank her later, he decides. He would've been surely dead if she hadn't saved him. _For the second time.._ He notes, indignified and slightly guilty at the constant rate this was going at.

His eyes drifted past that to find a nightstand, and the glint of a picture frame catches his eye. A wooden frame was standing above the nightstand, looking relatively cleaner than the rest of the dusty stand. Sunlight reflected upon the glass, blocking out the depicted scene.

Intrigued by the mystery presented to him, he leans forward. Wincing as pain slams into him, he slowly inches forward, arm reaching out to grab the picture from it's resting spot. Before his eyes can take in the image, the door slowly creaks open.

Natsu's hand shot out to place the frame back down, and his arm flies back at his side. He sat frozen, whipping his head around to stare straight ahead as all his senses tensed.

Lucy hesitantly opens the door, a bowl of soup in balanced in her free hand. She sees her pink-haired patient sitting up, the boy staring sharply her way. Emotions of anger and sickening dread passed through her. Her cold demeanour shatters as she sets down the soup at a nearby writing desk and she yells, "No! Don't do that!"

The boy jumps at her words, and quickly jumped back into the bed.

Lucy swiftly moves to the pinkette's side, checking his wounds with a furious scowl. She's relieved to find his wounds remained the same, looking untouched.

Lucy glares daggers at the boy, who sank deeper into the soft material of the bed. "Do you _want_ to die? I'm surprised you even survived through these wounds, you idiot, so don't go killing yourself and waste this miracle!", she says, her loud voice laced with every last drip of venom that coursed through her being. The boy nods fastly, green eyes wide.

Lucy sighs, closing her eyes, and her next words come out soft. A look of confusion passes over the boy. "Sorry. You're pretty much almost dead, and here I am, shouting and yelling at you." She stares deep into his eyes, as if to convey her feelings of utter confusion to him. "And I know you probably have a million questions for me right now. I promise I'll try to answer as many as I can. But you need rest as of now. You've got a lot of healing to do."

The boy nods, a grim expression dancing in his eyes. Lucy notices how they then drift towards the soup, how his eyes and mouth went slightly agape as he took in the sight of his supper.

A tiny smile graces her lips, and she walks in two short strides to the bowl, carrying it off to the starry-eyed boy. Lucy leans over the bed, scooping a spoonful of the soup. "Open wide," Lucy orders.

Confused of what the blonde was asking of him, the boy slightly parts his lips. Lucy lifts the spoon towards them. A bewildered expression floods his face as Lucy began to spoon feed him.

"You can't do it yourself," Lucy explains, voice indicated she had no ounce of intention of giving up.

He reluctantly allows her to feed him. Lucy sees the gleam of pain that shows in his eyes every time he shallowed. When the bowl was completely emptied of its contents, Lucy's hands grab the empty bowl. She was prepared to leave, nearly by the frame of the door as a weak voice cuts through the air.

"Why? Why'd.. 'Ya help me back there?", the boy whispers hoarsely. Lucy's ears barely pick up on every word.

"Because. I couldn't just leave you back there.", Lucy answers truthfully, deciding she shouldn't lie to him. He seems trustable, but she wasn't going to relax one moment around this stranger, whom she had barely known.

He's silent for a moment, face unreadable. "Natsu.", he finally mutters.

"Natsu?", Lucy asks, confused.

"What's your name?", he answers back. Lucy catches on.

"Lucy," she replies, inwardly cursing herself for using her real name. Lucy should have at least gave him a fake name or alias.

"Lucy..", Natsu repeats, a smile tugging the side of his lips as he simply says. "Thanks."

Natsu sends his signature grin at Lucy, feeling the smile pull his mouth wide open. He feels a rush of triumph as he sees a crack open in her walls.

Lucy catches the contagious smile, a grin of her own pulling at her lips as she replies, "Don't worry about it." And Lucy exits the room, slowly shutting the door behind her, making her way to her own room across the small corridor.

* * *

 _ **A/N**_ 'Ay I'm back! Just who is this strange pink haired boy? Next chapter just _might_ tell us! Thank you for reading, and I hope you'll stick 'round for the next page in our story! ;)


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